JACKSON, Miss. (WLBT) – A former special assistant U.S. attorney has been arrested and charged with arson.
According to the Jackson Fire Department, firefighters responded to a building and dumpster fire at Yana Club on Friday, around 12 a.m., at 555 Hartfield Street, which is in the Fondren area of the capital city.
The Yana Club is currently closed due to the damage. They are asking for donations to help with the repair.
If someone needs a meeting to attend, the AA Mid Mississippi Intergroup website can help with finding alternatives.
Fire investigators then spoke with Capitol Police, who said they had a suspect in custody.
The suspect, identified as George McDowell “Dow” Yoder III, a former attorney, was arrested and charged with two counts of arson (first-degree arson of Yana Club and third-degree arson of the dumpster).
No injuries were reported.
The suspect will make his initial court appearance at 10:30 a.m. on Friday.
According to a WDAM News story in 2021, Yoder had been a special assistant U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Mississippi from 2009 to 2011.
He also ran unsuccessfully as a candidate for the Mississippi Court of Appeals in 2016.
Records from the Mississippi Supreme Court (tribunal) also indicate that in 2022, Yoder was suspended from being able to practice law here for three years because he accepted fees from clients, then abandoned them and failed to deposit their retainers into a trust account.
Essentially, he “commingled client funds” with his personal money and performed no work on the cases he was hired to resolve.
Want more WLBT news in your inbox? Click here to subscribe to our newsletter.
See a spelling or grammar error in our story? Please click here to report it and include the headline of the story in your email.
Copyright 2026 WLBT. All rights reserved.
